


All For This Shadow

by Trickster_Angel



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Angst, Explicit Language, F/M, Felix being Felix, Pre-Season/Series 11, Some Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-08
Updated: 2015-10-08
Packaged: 2018-04-25 09:23:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4954990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trickster_Angel/pseuds/Trickster_Angel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felix and Locus are tasked with recovering and sorting through all the files of Project Freelancer. There isn’t much, but what they find is unexpected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All For This Shadow

**Author's Note:**

> So I was talking with my sister about the last episode of Red vs Blue. Since FILS is still around, Hargrove obviously got into the Project Freelancer files. However, based on the last episode of season 10, everything was supposed to have been deleted, except for one thing. This story keeps to that idea.

“God damn it!” The knife clattered against the wall and a scared soldier ran away as fast as he could. Felix glared at him as he left. The other soldiers looked at one another, afraid to stay but fearful of Felix’s wrath were they to leave.

“Go,” Locus growled. The soldiers didn’t need to be told twice. Felix was terrifying and could only be reined in by Locus.  Not that Locus wasn’t also terrifying, but he wouldn’t throw knives at random soldiers just because he was frustrated. Locus was controlled rage and Felix was unpredictable. Together, they were a lethal combination. So the soldiers left.

Once the room was cleared out, Felix flipped the table, papers, coffee mugs, and laptops fell to the floor. Locus had grabbed his own cup and laptop in time, and thus his things remained undamaged. But he was used to Felix acting like this. He took a sip of his coffee; it had gone cold in the hours they’d worked.

“Everything is a dead end!” Felix shouted, “There’s fucking nothing left! We’re wasting our fucking time!”

“The chairman wanted-”

“Fuck the chairman. Fuck all of this!”

It was a new mission for the both of them. It certainly wasn’t the most appealing assignment they’d ever taken but it did have its perks, lots of alien tech, a good payoff and the added fun of manipulating the people of Chorus into killing each other. Felix was especially excited for the last part while Locus really couldn’t care.

Part of their assignment had been to research Project Freelancer. There was a lot of files to go through, all the technology they developed, the AIs they created, the soldiers involved in the Project and who ran it behind the scenes. Yet, everything was gone. Every file was blank. In such a large organization, the widespread deletion was surprising. Surely someone had saved something. A tiny flash drive hidden on a rotting corpse would be enough but as far as they knew, there was nothing but empty folders and error messages.

“We’ll tell him there’s nothing,” Felix said, finally starting to calm down. He paced around the table. “We’ve been through almost everything. Nothing on the tech. Nothing on the soldiers. We don’t even know the fucking startup date. There’s nothing here!”

Locus listened to Felix’s rant, drinking his disgustingly cold coffee and browsing through some of the remaining files. As Felix had said, there were no documents left.

When he clicked on yet another folder, he was interested to find a video file simply titled “Allison”. Silently, Locus stood up. Placing his laptop and coffee on the floor, he put the table back on its legs. He placed the mug and laptop back on it.

“Come here,” he ordered. Felix walked to his side, looking over his shoulder at the laptop screen.

“What?” he demanded. Locus clicked on the video.

The first shot was of a beautiful woman. She had long blonde hair and wore a UNSC marine uniform. Behind her was a dark colored home with a carefully kept lawn. The woman, Allison most likely, looked into the camera expectantly.

“Leonard, come on, stop it. Put that thing down,” she spoke with a laugh in her voice and a smile almost on her lips. She grabbed the camera and attempted to drag it down, but she failed, “You're gonna make me late. They're waiting for me.” She turned away and a hand grabbed hers, forcing her to face the camera again. She was smiling as she came back.

“Who is she?” Felix asked, “Who’s Leonard? That’s a stupid name.”

 “Leonard, come on,” she pleaded, “I have to go.” Her smiled grew as she said, “Don’t make me hurt you.”

“Why is this the only file left?” Locus questioned.

The video was choppy after that, as if it had been editing together. In one shot, she was standing near the garage, securing elbow pads to her uniform. In the next, there was a zoom on the woman’s face. She had a concerned expression as she looked past the camera, fixing her hat and tucking stray pieces of hair behind her ears before focusing back on the camera. She had pretty blue eyes. After that, she stood near the garage again, looking into the distance. In half of the shots, she was just smiling at the person behind the camera.

“She loved him,” Felix said, bringing a chair over to watch. He propped his elbows up on the table and rested his head in his hands. “Damn, she’s hot.” Locus gave him a look, silently asking if that was a necessary comment. Felix looked at the other mercenary and then sighed. “I’m not blind, asshole.”

Another shot of her close the camera, “And don’t worry. You’ll see me again.” She said that confidently, with a smile.

“What year is this?” Felix asked, “Couldn’t have been too long ago. But it’s really grainy. And whoever took this is terrible at filming shit.”

Locus didn’t say anything. Whoever took the video obviously wanted to remember this woman. Clearly, there was a strong bond between Allison and Leonard. “Perhaps she was in the Great War.”

“What else could it have been?” Felix replied, “Maybe she died. Maybe this is all that’s left of her.”

“Quiet.”

The woman’s smile faded. “Don’t say goodbye,” she said seriously, leaning towards the camera, shaking her head slightly for emphasis, “I hate goodbyes.” She backed away when her words were finished. She looked at the camera sadly.

The woman turned away and this time, Leonard allowed her to go. She picked up her things, a backpack and a rifle lying on the ground.

“Ready?” she asked, a smile on her lips but she looked sad. There was no response from Leonard.

She walked away, past the cameraman and down the driveway. Her eyes were focused on the ground, her expression contemplative and perhaps even the smallest bit afraid. The video ended there.

“That was it?” Felix asked, grabbing control of the mouse and clicking the replay button.

“Leonard, come on, stop it. Put that thing down.”

“Why would this be the only thing left?” Felix asked, watching the video as if the woman had all the answers.

“Perhaps it is to lead us in the wrong direction,” Locus said but he wasn’t sure he believed it. This video was so personal, the woman in it looked so sad, he knew that there was a reason it was here. There was a reason why it was the only file from Project Freelancer they could find.

“You're gonna make me late. They're waiting for me.”

“No, this was important,” Felix replied without looking at him, “She meant something to someone.”

“Leonard must have been part of Project Freelancer,” Locus hypothesized.

“Leonard, come on, I have to go. Don’t make me hurt you.”

“No shit, Sherlock. But this gives us something to go on,” Felix said, leaning back in his chair.

“First names,” Locus clarified.

“And don’t worry. You’ll see me again.”

“A quick run through the UNSC database and I bet I can find her,” Felix said with a sinister smile, “She won’t be a mystery woman forever.”

“Don’t say goodbye. I hate goodbyes.”

“Yeah, don’t we all?” Felix said to her without sympathy. Locus could clearly see the sorrow on her face. She was putting up a brave front, smiling for Leonard. But she was scared. If she was going to fight in the Great War, she had every reason to be.

“Ready?” She walked off screen again, eyes downcast, her face troubled and the video ended.

“Well, come on,” Felix said, standing up, “We need to get the minions back. This is something to go on.”

Locus looked at his partner incredulously, “They’re soldiers.”

“But they do whatever I say and we’re about to commit genocide like supervillains. That makes them the minions. Or lackeys, if you prefer,” Felix taunted him. Locus stood up too, sighing. Felix was such a pain in the ass.

“We should send the video to Chairman Hargrove,” Locus suggested as they left the room.

“Yeah,” Felix agreed, “Maybe he can make something out of it. Like who Leonard is. Or her.”

The two mercenaries went to find the soldiers, wherever they were hiding. They had work to do.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. Please leave a kudos or comment. They make me happy. :)


End file.
